Family support rules may be different when the paying spouse is in the military.

Talk to a Local Family Law Attorney

If
the parent who must pay child support is in the military, it can be
challenging to calculate the proper amount. This article can help you
find your way.

Where to Start

To calculate a reasonable amount of child support, start with your state’s child support guidelines.
If you and the other parent can’t agree on the support amount and a
court hasn’t yet weighed in, you can consult military guidelines. Each
branch of the military has its own guidelines for appropriate interim
family support when the state hasn’t yet established a support order.
Generally, however, the amounts are less than what state guidelines
provide.

Be aware that it can be difficult to find information about the
military’s child support guidelines. If you need to establish interim
support, check with your state’s child support enforcement agency or
seek help from a military Legal Assistance Office. (You can use the
online legal services locator to find an office near you.)

Calculating a Service Member’s Income

Because military paychecks are unlike any other paychecks, it can be a
real challenge to determine what a service member’s actual pay is. This
is unfortunate given that a parent’s income is always the basis for
calculating child support. To get started with your state’s child
support guidelines, you’ll need to know the service member’s income as
well as the amount of any payments the service member is making for the
children’s health insurance or for work-related day care.

Start with the service member’s base salary. There’s also a housing
allowance, calculated using location, family commitments, and the
service member’s pay grade. There are also pay differentials for
hazardous assignments and other variations in responsibilities. It’s
possible that the service member is receiving “in-kind” compensation in
the form of housing, meals, and other nonmonetary compensation.

In trying to determine the other parent’s income, don’t use a tax
return, because some of the income that service members receive is
tax-free, and you’ll be working with an amount that’s too low. Instead,
use the Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), which is similar to a pay
stub but more comprehensive. The LES will show you the service member
parent’s basic pay and housing and other allowances, as well as
information about how many dependents the service member is claiming and
how much accrued leave is available.

The IRS doesn’t tax military housing and food allowances, but most
states’ child support guidelines include all income, whether it’s
taxable or not. In recent years, with many more service members on
active duty, state courts have begun to weigh in on this issue. They
appear to universally agree that even though allowances and in-kind
compensation are nontaxable, they should be counted as income for
purposes of calculating support. In-kind compensation can include onbase
housing -- so if a service member lives on the base, the value of the
housing can also be included.

As always when you’re dealing with the U.S. military, you may not
have an easy time getting access to the information you need. In fact,
you may be required to submit a Freedom of Information Act request if
your spouse won’t cooperate and provide the LES. You’ll probably need an
attorney’s help for this, but you also could seek assistance from a
child support enforcement agency. (Links to the child support
enforcement agencies for every state are available at the National Child Support Enforcement Association website.)